WASTEWISE results at the 54th Annual SGA conference in Switzerland

On 7 May 2026, Manika Rödiger from Agroscope presented WASTEWISE’s research findings on food waste in the meat supply chain at the Annual SGA conference of Swiss Society for Agricultural Economics and Agricultural Sociology (SGA).

Wasted meat has the biggest environmental impact due to the high land, feed, water and energy inputs required. The research conducted in Switzerland estimated the quantities of bovine, pig and poultry materials that could be consumed by humans but are lost or wasted along the supply chains. Regarding bovine meat, approximately 3% of food waste can be avoided, compared to 4% for chicken and 5% for pork.

These figures differ considerably from those of other meat mass flow analyses; for example, a study on Italian meat mass flow excluded processed meat. The figures were 3–4% (beef), 6–8% (pork) and 4–5% (poultry) at retail, compared to 1.8% (beef, pork and poultry) at households and 12% (beef) and 11% (pork and poultry) at food services, compared to 0.9% (beef), 1.4% (pork) and 1.3% (chicken).

Researchers extracted two main conclusions. Firstly, there is potential to reduce food waste, particularly in terms of consumption, as the environmental impact of food waste is greatest in households and food services. Secondly, easing the restrictions on animal feed could increase the use of by-products for human consumption.